National Coordinating Center for Communications

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) National Coordinating Center for Communications (NCC) continuously monitors national and international incidents and events that may impact emergency communications. Incidents include not only acts of terrorism, but also natural events such as tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes. In cases of emergency, NCC Watch leads emergency communications response and recovery efforts under Emergency Support Function #2 of the National Response Framework.

Overview

With much of the nation’s cyber infrastructure tied into communications, the NCC Watch is also a vital partner to the national cybersecurity effort. The NCC uses CISA Cybersecurity Advisories and the Industrial Control Systems teams to monitor and resolve issues impacting cyber and communications during an emergency.

NCC Watch cannot perform its vital mission without the cooperation and expertise of its federal and private sector partners. It was the private sector that first recommended the establishment of a centralized government-industry coordination center following the divestiture of AT&T in the early 1980s. Today, 11 federal government agencies and over 60 private sector communications and information technology companies routinely share critical communications information and advice in a trusted environment to support the NCC’s national security/emergency preparedness communications mission.

To fulfill the responsibilities regarding National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) communications outlined in Executive Order 13618, the NCC cultivates its long-standing relationships with private industry members of the Communications Information Sharing and Analysis Center and government partners. These partnerships facilitate the exchange of vulnerability, threat, intrusion, and anomaly information amongst government and industry communications participants and are critical to the sustainment of NS/EP communications and accomplishing the Emergency Support Function #2 mission.